'Our Town' in Beaufort

Saturday

May 21, 2011 at 8:37 PM

The Black Box Theater at ARTworks in Beaufort Town Center will present Thornton Wilder’s play ‘Our Town’ starting June 2, and one Hilton Head teen is taking center stage.

Kim Stevens, who attends Hilton Head High School, plays a central role in the character of Emily Webb. Stevens has appeared in many musicals in the area, but this time “I wanted to try my hand at straight theatre,” she commented. “What a better play to do so in than the American classic? I had heard so many great things about ARTworks and their productions.”

The play follows Emily, and the town of Grover’s Corner, throughout her life and beyond.

“Emily evolves so much throughout the show. It is so easy to relate to her, because she just wants to love and be loved, and that’s all anyone wants, really,” said Stevens. “She has a very high opinion of herself, because she really is good at everything. George is her weakness, the one thing that she’s not good at. She is so much fun to play because while she is very witty and a huge perfectionist, her sweetness makes up for some of the things she says and does.”

The play premiered in 1938, and is considered by critics to be an American classic.

“The moral of the show is very cliché. However, the way it comes about being revealed is unlike any epiphany ever seen on stage. You’re with these characters for two whole acts, and suddenly half of them are deceased, and you discover what Thornton Wilder wanted to stress to his audience,” said Stevens. “The effect of making the audience so acquainted with the families in the show makes his idea of ‘the afterlife’ resonate so well with the audience that they walk away changed by the message of the play. It’s truly magical.”

The play is produced jointly by the Palmetto Theater Xperiment and Misspent Youth Productions and directed by JW Rone. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays until the final show on June 12. Thursday nights are “Pay What You Can.”

Tickets are $15 per person, $10 for students (13 and older), $5 for children (12 and under) and $10 for groups of 10 or more, and can be ordered oline at www.ArtWorksInBeaufort.org

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